For transmission of a JPEG image file, the JPEG image file is organized according to 8×8 blocks of pixels and a discrete cosine transform (DCT) is performed on each 8×8 block. After the application of the DCT, the data for each pixel in a block undergoes quantization. After the DCT and quantization, each JPEG block comprises a set of quantized coefficients prior to transmission. The process of quantization affects the accuracy of each coefficient, thereby causing some loss with regard to the image's resolution and appearance. The JPEG format applies entropy encoding to encode each quantized coefficient for transmission of the JPEG image file to an image recipient.
Upon receipt of the entropy-encoded quantized coefficients, the image recipient reverses the entropy encoding in order to obtain the JPEG image file's quantized coefficients. The quantization and the DCT can be reversed as well to obtain image data for the recipient to sufficiently reconstruct and display the JPEG image file.